Too Far
by Northwestern-Requiem
Summary: Silas has found the Autobot's true weakness, and intends to exploit it.
1. First Night

"This is all my fault…" June sobbed into her good hand, Arcee sitting next to her, gently rubbing her back. The femme looked up hopelessly to her comrades; a furious Bulkhead, a panicking Bumblebee, a far too quiet Ratchet, and an angry looking Optimus crowded around her.

It had all gone so wrong.

Due to a surprise attack by MECH on an oil line in the wilds of Alaska, the Autobots called up and asked Ms. Darby if she could pick up the kids from school and take them home for the day. The kindly woman agreed, wishing them luck.

June said that she had easily picked up the children, informing them of where their beloved guardians had gone, much to Miko's incessant disappointment. Driving through town had apparently yielded much needed construction on the main road, something that June effortlessly remedied with a detour to the scenic desert route just outside of Jasper.

She hadn't thought anything of it as the children prattled as usual about their school lives and the Autobots.

They should have seen through the ruse.

The last thing June remembered was a roaring engine, a chartreuse muscle car with a black-masked driver, and a burst of light and static.

It was the Jasper police who had found Ms. Darby's car on the side of the road two hours later; overturned, windows shattered, mechanical pieces all over the road as if the car had flipped over several times.

June was the only one in the car, surprisingly minimally hurt, but unconscious.

She had regained consciousness at her hospital in the early hours of the next morning, and had panicked when she was told she was alone. Immediately, June discharged herself and contacted Agent Fowler with the number he had given her and told him everything.

Fowler had known instantly what had happened and, in turn, awoke the Autobots and gave them the news; MECH had kidnapped Jack, Miko, and Raf.

No ransom note had been left, no contact made, and they had no knowledge of the whereabouts MECH's base of operations, the past few hours had been maddening.

"You couldn't have known, June, it isn't your fault." Arcee soothed the poor woman. June only wiped at her eyes with her un-bandaged hand, being careful not to irritate the bandaged wound on her forehead.

Optimus knelt in front of the nurse, optics softening, "There is no reason for Silas to harm the children; he will hold them ransom in exchange for a Cybertronian replacement."

Ms. Darby looked up at the Prime with red, swollen eyes, "That's not exactly reassuring, and you know the kids would never allow that to happen." She sniffled.

"Before we start voting on who's throwing themselves on MECH's cutting board," Fowler cut in from the catwalk, gesturing to the main computer screen, "Let's find out _exactly _what ol' Si wants."

Arcee schooled her voice enough to ask, "How do we get in contact with him if we have no idea where he is?"

"I've been postulating that for some time now, Arcee, and, maybe, we don't have to." Ratchet spoke up from the monitors, "Miko never goes anywhere without her phone, correct?" the medic looked over at Bulkhead.

The ex-wrecker nodded, "Yeah, but I'm pretty sure MECH isn't stupid enough to let her keep it…"

"She doesn't need to," Ratchet turned back to the monitors, "Luckily for us, human cellular devices have an emergency global positioning system built-in for instances such as this." He began to type on the keyboard.

"All you need to do is call her phone and I can triangulate her position."

Bulkhead nodded and activated his communiqué link and broadcasted it through the computer, waiting as it rang. Ratchet's typing increased as a global map popped onto the screen, minimizing to the United States, then the western part. A moment later, the grouping of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and California was selected and the signal became clearer and clearer.

"Can you still get a signal if I end up getting her voicemail?" Bulkhead queried.

As Ratchet opened his mouth to speak, the ringing stopped; someone had answered the phone.

After a hesitant silence, Bulkhead probed curiously, "Miko?"

"_I'm afraid poor, little Miko is a bit indisposed at the moment_." A cultured, deep voice answered smoothly.

Optics went wide with realization, even June and Fowler knew, and a cold chill went down everyone's spine in horror. The tracking map on the computer flickered before a new video feed took control of the monitor.

"Silas." Optimus growled, optics narrowing.

"_Hello, Optimus Prime, are you and your soldiers doing well?" _ A charismatic smile spread across the scarred face.

"We would be doing much better if you hadn't taken the kids!" Bulkhead snarled.

Silas cocked his head, face turning innocent. _"Who, me? Are you sure they didn't just wander off? Miss Nakadai especially seems to need a leash."_

Fowler spoke up before Bulkhead could explode, "Where are they, Si?" The agent punctuated, glaring at the still smiling Silas.

Silas hesitated a moment, before dropping a hand to press something on the console in front of him.

The screen flickered once more to a new image; grainy, dark video feed slowly brightening to clearly show a room with three small occupants.

They were bound to chairs, arms and legs tied with thick, bulging rope. Gagged, they were silent and unmoving; unconscious it would seem, from multiple bleeding wounds. Perhaps they were still injured from the car wreck, but the Autobots saw otherwise.

Bumblebee gave a cry of horror, Arcee gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth, Bulkhead cried out Miko's name, but to no avail.

Optimus tried to school his shocked expression, but it was impossible when he could see the dried blood on their skin next to rapidly blackening bruises.

Ratchet was the first to recover, looking first to June and Fowler, the former having broken down into tears, then back to Silas, who reappeared, looking smug, "You sparkles fragger!" he snarled furiously, "Have you no shame? They're _children_!"

Optimus' hand on his shoulder drew Ratchet back, "Silas, release them, they do not know any information that would be of use to you."

Silas smirked wickedly, "Who _said I wanted information? Perhaps I just like watching you __**squirm**__."_

The Prime growled lowly, "What do you want?"

Silas just laughed darkly as the screen went black.

O - O - O

Upon waking, Jack was hit with a wave of raw pain shooting down his spine. His groan was suppressed by a thick cloth forced into the back of his jaw, leaving a dull ache at the tightness around his head. Jack blearily opened his eyes to see nothing, the darkness overwhelming in wherever he was. His neck was stiff from hanging for so long, and he sat up and rolled it a little to alleviate the discomfort.

And to the left, he saw an unconscious Miko, tied up just as he was, with blood dripping down her face.

Cold fear washed through his body with a terrible shudder, his eyes widening to the point he thought they would fall out of his head. He struggled, but discovered his hands were bound behind him, and, despite the copious amounts of blood dampening the rope, he could not slick his way out of his bindings.

Jack gave a muffled version of Miko's name, but she didn't respond. He turned back around as he struggled harder against his binds, succeeding in rocking his chair back and forth, but not much more.

A quiet whine sounded to his right, and Jack turned to see Rafael in a similar state; tied up and bloody, his glasses were shattered and there was a gash on his shoulder, most likely from the crash. He too, was gagged, making conversation impossible.

Raf gave him a nod, which Jack interpreted as him signaling he was ok, and Jack gave a nod of his own.

Beginning his struggling again, Jacks thoughts drifted back to the accident; after MECH had attacked during the school day, they had all been picked up by his mother, just driving home and avoiding construction, then a flash of light, pain, and sound, and everything had gone dark. A jolt of fear ran up his spine again as he struggled to remember what had happened to his mother.

No. She had to be alright. He had to believe that she was…

_Ok, calm down, think about this, Jack. We're in a human sized room, so rule out Decepticons. Maybe MECH played the 'bots to get to us? _He snorted angrily; Silas **would** hold them hostage to get to the Autobots. But there was no way he would get away with it, not while Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead had anything to say about it. Absently, Jack wondered how much time had passed since the accident.

Had the Autobots found out about it all yet? Had Arcee found his mother? Were they mounting a rescue mission or simply negotiating for their release? Jack shook his head at the last thought, Optimus may put diplomacy before violence, but even he would not stoop to bargain with Silas when they had been kidnapped so ruthlessly, would he?

No. No, help was on its way; he knew it was, all he had to do was hold on till then.

Jack's thoughts stopped then as the door to the room opened, and light spilled in behind the silhouette of Silas himself.

_Scrap._

"Hello, Mr. Darby," The man smiled smugly, nodding to Raf as well, "Mr. Esquivel. So glad you two could join us."

Jack narrowed his eyes to a glare as he watched the man predatorily circle them, and beside him, he heard Raf's breathing hitch as Silas came to a stop behind him. Jack panicked and tried to look over his shoulder enough to see exactly what the MECH agent was doing, but failed to see anything significant until Raf's gag was taken off. He saw Silas move out of his peripheral to do the same for him, and Jack wasted no time in spitting the putrid thing out and flexing his jaw to relive the ache.

Silas had moved onto Miko by the time Jack twisted around again, watching as he untied and removed the cloth from her mouth. "Now," he purred lowly as he moved to stand in front of her, "let's have Miss Nakadai join us as well, hm?"

Too quickly for Jack to realize, Silas reared back and backhanded Miko ruthlessly on her bloody cheek, who gave a sharp cry of pain upon being forcefully awoken.

"Miko!" Raf cried hoarsely next to him.

Miko's head lolled as she struggled to right her head again, looking up blearily at Silas. "W-What-?" She whimpered, trying to sort things out. Silas gave a chuckle and stalked a few steps away from them, hands behind his back.

Jack leaned over to Miko, "Miko, are you ok?" he murmured slowly into her ear as she looked over at him; her eyes clearing and realization setting in.

"Jack! Where- what happened? Where are we?" She cried frantically, eyeing Raf, then Silas, then her own predicament; spastically trying to free herself as she began to hyperventilate.

"Calm down! It's ok, Miko, we're going to be alright." Jack urged, trying to calm her frenzy.

"You should listen to Jack, Miko." Silas called from the other side of the room. The man was leaning against the wall coolly, his arms folded across his chest. "He is, after all, the most responsible of you three. At least that's what I've managed to gather."

A moment passed, as Miko composed herself, and Silas' smile grew.

Jack swallowed, managing a defiant stare into Silas' eyes, "We're not telling you anything that would hurt the Autobot's." From behind him, Raf and Miko nodded.

Silas cocked his head, "And your mother? Think she would talk to keep you safe?"

Jack growled, knowing it was true, "Go to hell." He spat in Silas' face in a rare flash of rage.

The man reared back and dealt a harshly slapped Jack, causing Miko and Raf to cry out behind him as he slumped over a little.

Silas walked carefully behind Jack to Raf's side, looking aver at the eldest of the trio. "I would have thought your dear mother would have taught you better manners when speaking to your superiors, young man. After all," Jack watched at Silas moved to untie one of Raf's arms and took it firmly in both hands as Raf shouted at the man to let him go, "words like that hurt people."

With that, Jack watched in horror as Silas sharply jerked his hands in opposite ways, resulting in a sickening, audible 'crack' and Raf screaming in agony.

"Stop! Raf!" Jack cried helplessly, struggling to no avail against his bonds. Silas retied the boy's now-broken arm, walking over to a shaking, crying Miko and standing behind her now with a sadistic smile.

"Stop it! Leave them alone, _**please**__!"_ he begged, but Silas ignored him, and proceeded to pull out a switchblade knife from his belt. The man grabbed one of Miko's pigtails and viciously angled her head backwards to place the edge of the knife at her throat.

"No! No, don't, please! Don't hurt her!" Jack was desperately pleading, looking at Silas with hysterical eyes.

"Then, "Silas coed next to Miko's terrified face, "if I were you, Jack, I would do as I'm told."


	2. Second Night

**My dearly, dearly beloved readers; you have my thanks for your kind messages and for your lovely support through my hiatus. That you were able to bear with me through such a long wait is most miraculous to me. **

**My head will soon be better, thank you all for your concern.**

**So here's what I managed. It was supposed to be much longer and much gorier, but alas, my body turned against me! **

**I hope it satisfies you for the mean time… **

**: )**

Too Far Ch.2

_/'Comm. link talking'/_

"I'll kill him! I rip out his internals and let him bleed out slowly!" Bulkhead snarled, pounding at the floor viciously, his optics far too bright.

"Bulkhead, desist." Optimus punctuated, laying a hand on the ex-wrecker's shoulder and drawing him back. The Prime looked to Ratchet, who was furiously typing away on the main monitor's keyboard, mumbling to himself angrily.

Arcee had taken to calming June again after Silas' transmission but was failing as the woman kept sobbing and the femme could not keep the anger and despair out of her own voice.

"It's going to be alright, June, we'll find them, I promise." Arcee soothed quietly. She turned to level a gaze at Optimus, opening a communiqué link.

_/'I'm with Bulkhead. That fleshling is __**dead**__ when I get my hands on him.'/_

Optimus gave a silent sigh, _/'We cannot harm humans, Arcee,'/ _ He looked to the crying woman next to her, and his gaze darkened, _/'No matter how much they may deserve it.'/_

Ratchet stopped pounding on the console and whipped his helm around to glare at his leader, _/'And when he kills the children, Optimus? What then? We let him live to do it again to someone else?'/_

Bumblebee, next to the medic, let out an audible whimper at the thought, but remained quiet.

_/'Silas will not harm the children as long as he can use them to barter with us-'/_

"He **HAD** a chance to trade, Prime, he **chose** not to! What does that tell you? That he doesn't want a 'bot, he wanted the kids!"Bulkhead snarled viciously, breaking the silent communication.

Optimus gritted his denta, and an ache blossomed in his spark, knowing it was true.

Ratchet typed increasingly harder until he smashed his fists on the keyboard with a growl, "I cannot narrow down the trace on Miko's phone any further than this; they could be anywhere in the Southwest!"

Agent Fowler, from his silent seat on the stairs, looked up from his hands for the first time since the video feed, "Lemme get on the horn and see if anyone's seen anything. I mean, Si's got an armada of helicopters and bright green cars, someone's gonna have to see something…" He mumbled, standing and bringing his cell phone out from his jacket.

As Fowler walked into the recesses of the base, silence descended on the hangar with the air thick with guilt, fear, and anger, until June sniffled and uncurled herself in Arcee's hold.

"Raf and Miko's parents are going to want to know what happened, what do I tell them?" the woman glanced up at her family's guardian with red, puffy eyes.

Arcee moved to say something, but swallowed it and instead looked to Optimus, who moved to kneel before her. "For now, I believe the story of an anonymous kidnapping will do. The perpetrators attacked your vehicle and abducted the children; Agent Fowler can forge the proper evidence to distract the local police with it until we find Jack, Miko, and Rafael."

Optimus pulled himself upright again, glancing over to Ratchet and the monitor, "If we cannot trace the children through Miko' cell phone, then we shall have to investigate the crash site to look for leads to where MECH may have taken them."

He looked to the quiet scout next to Ratchet, "Bumblebee, go with Ratchet and see what traces you can find there." Ratchet and Bumblebee obeyed, transforming silently and driving towards the exit.

Next, Optimus turned to look at the now, sheepish ex-wrecker behind him. Bulkhead shifted uneasily, "Er, sorry about yelling, Prime, I-"

"Bulkhead, please take June home. Then go assist Bumblebee and Ratchet." Optimus dismissed the larger mech's apology.

June looked as if she wanted to protest, but gave a sigh and stood warily; looking aged and tired more than years of single parenting could do to her. Bulkhead watched her approach, defeated, then transformed to his vehicle mode and opened the driver's door for June. She climbed in, gave a wave to Arcee and they drove out the exit; leaving Arcee and Optimus alone in the hangar.

A single, silent moment passed.

"I can't lose another partner, Optimus; I won't be able to go on like that." Arcee choked out, her grief and fear leaking out in the presence of her commander. "Not again."

Optimus looked at her with sympathetic optics, he kneeled down to her, laying his hands on her shoulder struts, "And I give you my word, I will do all I can so you never have to again. I swear to you, Arcee, we will find them. "

The Prime looked off to where Agent Fowler had disappeared; the man wouldn't have been gone so long if he hadn't found anything; at least he hoped so.

"We will."

-o-o-o-

"Nothing? Not one god-damned sighting?" Fowler roared into his cell phone, "This guy's got an army of goons, and we can't catch wind of ONE?"

"_No need to shout, I can hear you perfectly, Fowlie."_

Fowler growled into the phone, "Simmons, you're pushing it; find me a trail, a trace, ANYTHING. These kids have valuable information about-"

"_About what? The Autobots' lunch schedules? How much you divulge in front of 'em, Fowlie?"_

"Stop calling me that!"

"_Whad'ya want, man? This guy's more off the radar than Area 51; no record, no documentation, no nothin'. Lookin' back, probably would have been helpful if we had a surname…"_

Fowler groaned, suddenly feeling tired and defeated. "So we got nothing." He sighed, putting his back to a wall and sliding to the floor, "We got nothing and he's got three little kids at his mercy."

Simmons must have decided to choose his words, because the other end of the phone went silent for a moment, _"I'm sorry, Will, I got my CIA contact workin' on this, but for now; we're stuck. I hope your robo-friends have better luck, I really do."_

Fowler nodded to himself, "Yeah, thanks anyway, Simmons."

The agent disconnected the line, closed his eyes, and hung his head.

They had **nothing.**

-o-o-o-

Ratchet and Bumblebee had thoroughly scanned the area of the abduction with little results other than the carnage making Ratchet nauseas. By the time they had returned to their Podunk base with empty hands, Bulkhead had also returned from dropping June off. Agent Fowler had also left for the Pentagon to report the situation and put the children, and Silas', profile at every checkpoint in the United States.

Until then, all they could do was wait.

Wait.

Glower.

Sulk.

And _pray _that Primus took pity on the three children, and kept them alive until they could be rescued.

The local clock chimed 3 P.M.; twenty-four hours since the children had been abducted.

-o-o-o-

Optimus ordered them all to rest, to save their strength for when they located the MECH base, Ratchet, in turn, ordered him to rest by pulling medical rank. He ushered his grumbling teammates off to their quarters for some uneasy, hard-earned rest.

At two or three in the morning, when the base was silent, and the Autobots had just drifted off into recharge; the klaxon sounded, jolting them all from their sleep and bolting out of their quarters.

It was Ratchet who had sounded the alarm, for very good reason.

The video had been sent via an anonymous transmission, showing Rafael sitting alone in a corner with a defiant glare leveled behind the camera. Silas emerged into view, stalking towards the boy predatorily with his hands behind his back.

Raf said nothing, continuing to watch Silas through his cracked glasses.

"_So, Raf, what say you and I get to know each other a little bit __**better**__, hm?" _Silas reached into his belt to withdraw a switchblade knife, flicking his wrist to snap a wickedly sharp blade out; turning it over a few times in his hand.

"_You won't be nearly as fun as your friends,"_ Silas leered down at Raf, who leaned back as far away as he could from the man, eyes going wide as the knife came closer to him. "_But we'll make do, won't we, Rafael?"_

"He can't be implying what I think he is…" Bulkhead spat through gritted denta while Bumblebee trembled in barely controlled rage next to him.

"For his sake," Ratchet snarled, "he better not be."

Optimus remained silent, his face impassive, watching the humans on the screen with feral raptness.

On screen, Silas finally lunged, grabbing Raf by his arm, which was obviously either broken or fractured and hauling the boy upwards and towards the camera. Raf struggled helplessly, making small noises of pain at the abuse on his already injured arm.

"_Let's begin from the insides, shall we?" _Silas smirked, grabbing Raf's wrists in one large hand and brutally lifted them up, causing Raf's arm to make a cracking noise that made them wince.

"Insides?" Ratchet balked.

"Oh, Primus, he can't mean-" Arcee gasped.

Bumblebee wailed, his hands flying to his head as his optics shrank in fear, "/No! We have to do something! He can't-/"

"Bumblebee," Optimus looked back, sadly, "This isn't live; Silas recorded this to send to us."

"So it couldn't be traced…" Bulkhead sighed.

By now, Silas had cuffed Raf's hands with cruel metal cuffs and hooked them onto a chain from the ceiling.

The boy was struggling violently as he was dragged upwards by his broken arm, his feet barely touching the floor.

Silas had circled the room again, emerging from behind Raf again with the wickedly curved blade, tossing it casually in the air and catching it as he walked.

"_Anything to say, Rafael? Or shall we just begin…"_ The man came up behind the boy and pressed the tip of the knife to Raf's pale cheek.

Raf made a frightened- _terrified- _face as he glanced down at the blade just inches from his eyes. The boy's jaw trembled, either in fear or in attempt to make words.

He finally spoke with a glare, insolent, _"Go to Hell."_

Bumblebee keened as Silas began to pummel Raf for his remark, his brave and defiant words that came from being taught by himself and others; taught that he should stand up to bullies and not give them what they want.

And now his poor charge was being beaten to within an inch of his life, and he could do nothing to stop it.

"_I see your mother was too busy with your sibling's to teach you any manners. Jack has the same problem; perhaps the Autobot's aren't as good an influence on you as you believe?" _Silas teased, rounding back to give another harsh punch to the back of the boy's head, eliciting a gasp of pain.

"_But, I suppose," _The man mused, returning his hands behind his back with the knife glittering in between them, _"That's nothing that can't be corrected, hmm?"_

Raf's chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath, head lolling upwards to try and get a look at his attacker as his arms strained above him.

Silas grabbed a handful of the boy's hair and pulled back to show his vulnerable throat, "_I wonder what sort of response I'll garner out of your yellow bot friend when I return you to him; __**in pieces…**__"_

Silas wasted no time after that; he sunk his blade into Raf's shoulder with an audible _shlick _sound, not a second later, Raf's scream accompanied it.

Minutes turned to hours for the five on looking Autobots; paralyzed by a horror that pierced them to their cores. The slick, disgusting noises of that blade sinking into flesh never ceased, though the screams died to agonized whines as the boy's life essence leaked onto the filthy floor.

Silas finally released Rafael's arms and allowed his body to drop into a pool of his blood. Raf didn't even twitch; lying far too still, face turned away. His broken arm now hung onto his body by strands of gory tissue, there were far too many punctures in his little abdomen for comfort, and the blood just **wouldn't stop!**

The man walked towards the camera, lowering his face into the lens with a sadistic smile, "_I seem to have made a mess of your little friend, Prime. Don't worry; I won't repeat that mistake with the other two…" _

Silas exited the shot to give the Autobot's one last look at Rafael's still, mutilated form, before the camera went dark.

-o-o-o-

Ratchet had to lean against the console to keep himself from collapsing,

Optimus' mouth was agape, optics still glued to the black screen.

Arcee had to rush away to the wall as she purged her tanks onto the floor; half digested energon spewing from her mouth.

Bumblebee stood, too shocked, too consumed by horror and fear to move, to twitch of let one sound from his vocalizer.

Bulkhead was torn between panic and anger; fearing too many things at once, mostly his own helplessness to be there to take action.

There were a thousand things that could have been said. Optimus could have given encouragement that Raf was tough and would survive. Ratchet could have boasted about the superiority of Cybertronian tracking, and how it was only a matter of time before Silas would be found. They could have rallied themselves into motion and confidence.

But they said nothing.

And the screams echoed on in their audios.


	3. Third Night

The cold wall he was sitting against had long since numbed his back, and the tiny, barred window at the top was clouded with what Jack suspected was snow.

He was alone; they had been separated not long after waking up. After inflicting his torture on Raf and delivering a firm ultimatum of Jack's cooperation with a knife to Miko's throat, Silas called in his men to untie them and took Raf for himself while the other masked brutes dragged a screaming Miko away despite Jack's desperate pleas for them to stay.

He had no idea how long it had been since then.

It killed him, to know his friends may be in pain and danger and he could do nothing to protect them. What did Silas want with them? All the MECH leader had said was the Jack need only do what he said to keep Raf and Miko safe, yet he ended up taking the other two anyway. Anger crept into his thoughts; how was he supposed to know what to do?!

'_Calm down, we're going to be fine. The Autobots have to know we're missing by now; they'll find us soon enough.' _Jack let his head fall back to rest against the wall, tipping it up to look to the window. White flecks dotted the night sky, showering down like confetti. '_Snow, huh? Then we aren't in Jasper anymore.'_

Where could they be? He had to be ready to give any information on his whereabouts to the Autobots if he got the opportunity to make contact with them. If the guard came in, could he slip through the door? But then Miko and Raf would be in danger, and Jack would not leave them to Silas' mercy.

Jack sighed, bringing both hands up to cover his face in exhaustion and helplessness.

-o-o-o-

To say Special Agent William Fowler was pissed off was injustice. His rage was leaking through his eyes as he stepped out of his helicopter on the landing pad of the Pentagon, wind whipping his jacket around him.

A man stood erect on the edge of the landing pad, clad in a black suit with reflective sunglasses sitting on a crooked nose. "Well, aren't we in a mood?" he shouted at Fowler over the sound of a dying helicopter rotor.

Fowler paid him no mind and continued his march to the entrance, shoving the door open and all but leaping down the stairs, the other man following. As they burst into the busy hallway, Fowler paused, whirled around, and grabbed the man; hauling him along as he stormed around each corner. "Take it easy, Fowlie, I only got two of those."

Fowler chose to ignore the nickname, "Did we get _anything_?"

If a response had been uttered, it was drowned out by the sounds of footsteps and military going-ons from the other personnel. Fowler kept dragging his companion until they reached a guarded door at the end of a glass-encased hallway, stopping to flash his badge and allow the other man to do the same before pressing a palm to a scanner sitting on the wall and waiting for a beeping chime, signaling the door opening.

Fowler shoved the man inside the awaiting darkness and walked in behind him.

The other man rubbed his arm, wincing as he glared at Fowler, "Y'know, you should really warn a guy when you're in one of these moods; it'll save some bruising."

"Simmons, do not test me right now. Did. We. Get. ANYTHING." Fowler continued as he moved into the dimly lit control room. Agents dressed much like Simmons were leaning over computer personnel, a low murmur of verbal communications providing a background noise. They walked into another glass hall as Simmons inhaled, "Sorta."

Simmons took the lead and beckoned Fowler to follow into a smaller room off to the side with rows of silent workers sitting behind multiple computer screens. Looming on the wall in front was a giant screen with a rotating Earth, tiny red dots blinking all over it, and a continuous scroll of information about each point running on the right side.

"Two hours ago, a hacker wannabe from Princeton and his two buddies hacked a Satellite camera and held control over it for several minutes; long enough to be noticed by the feds, and long enough," Simmons snapped his fingers and the globe onscreen disappeared; replaced by the feed from the satellite, "To capture a clip of three chartreuse muscle cars driving through a southwestern Wyoming forest."

The video played, zooming in onto the trio of vehicles as they could be seen in glimpses through the trees overshadowing the road they were driving on. A tree had fallen on the side of the road, clearing an area that was perfect for a much better birds eyes view. Fowler could see, as the cars drove under the clearing, that they were MECH's preferred transport.

His heart sped up and his eyes narrowed, "Do we know where they were headed?"

Simmons turned to look at his comrade, "Middle of nowhere; there's no town for a hundred and seventy miles from that location."

The agent nodded, "So a hidden base in Wyoming." Suddenly, he remembered the first day the children went missing, "Wait, we homed in on one of the kid's cell phone signal, it was in the Southwest, not the West."

Simmons arched a thick eyebrow, "This Silas guy is kinda special ops, right? Wouldn't be too hard to throw off a trace to make it look like they were close to home. I mean, Hell, **WE** can do that."

Fowler remained skeptical; he couldn't afford blind hope just yet, "Just in case, I want a recon team in that area. If Silas thinks he can throw us off, this'd be a good way to do it."

"You got it," Simmons shrugged.

Fowler took another look at the screen; the satellite feed now frozen onscreen, "I want this son of a bitch in cuffs ASAP."

"You and everyone else." Simmons commented over his shoulder as he sauntered out the door.

-o-o-o-

Miko was cold.

And wet.

Taking a breath in yielded nothing but a rush of stale water in her mouth. Choking, she spat it out and coughed; trying to get her head above the line of water at her mouth. Frantically, her eyes darted to her surroundings, but it was pitch black, and her vision yielded nothing.

Moving her arms and legs were pointless, Miko could feel them tied up and hitched onto the walls of the tub/pool she was sitting in; rendering her struggles futile. She remembered being separated from Jack and Raf, the MECH agent hauling he away by her arm with a grip hard enough to leave a bruise, she was sure. After that, not much.

"Miss Nakadai."

Miko froze, she recognized that voice. In terror, she remained motionless; trying to keep her breath even to not even ripple the water.

Silas was somewhere in this darkness. And she was all alone.

"Do you know how long you've been here?"

There was a strangle tingle that went through her whole body, not quite a shiver. But Miko ignored it, focusing on the voice that seemed to come from every corner of the room.

"It's been almost three days."

'_Three days?!' _It had all felt like one hellish night. Had it really been so long?

The tingle came again, this time she brushed it off as the water.

"And," the sensation again, this time, more, like a jolt, it made her jump unconsciously, "You're still here, Miko."

There was a tense moment of silence as Miko's mind reeled, trying to figure out the strange phenomenon, and footsteps echoed through the room.

The next time Silas spoke, it sounded too close to her, just too close, "The Autobots have not come for you."

And there it was; a horrid, lurching pain raced through her body like a lightning strike. A shrill scream left her throat as her eyes went impossibly wide, her body thrashing against her restraints and splashing water everywhere.

It stopped just as quickly as it had started, leaving Miko convulsing and frightened.

"Strange isn't it?" Silas drawled on as Miko shook violently.

Her stomach dropped as she heard footsteps again, they echoed like they were coming from every direction, "Optimus Prime and his minions swore to protect you children, and yet, they clearly aren't even going to try and get you back."

A whimper escaped her unconsciously as the static-like tingling returned.

It was quiet for a moment, and then, "I'm sure the green one, Bulkhead, is most relieved to not have to worry about you interfering with their operations anymore."

A shock ran through her again, this time significantly weaker than the previous one, but enough for her to cry out regardless. But this time, it didn't stop for a few minutes, finally ceasing to let her slump in the water again.

Miko couldn't hold in the pain anymore; every nerve in her body felt like it was on fire and she just couldn't breathe. Silas probably was going to just kill her this way, mocking her as doubt crept into her strained mind. Tears began to fill her vision.

And just like that Silas was next to her again, grabbing her head in a painful grip, "Let me assure you, Miko, Bulkhead knows what's happening right now. He knows exactly what's happening to you."

One more, powerful, ripping shock took her; her vision blurred, her voice peaked in a bloody scream until she went hoarse, she thrashed, she pulled, she sent water spilling everywhere, and finally she sobbed, "_Stop! Stop_, _please!_" Miko begged, wether for those awful words or for the pain to stop, she couldn't tell.

The electricity halted and she fell back again, her body shaking like an earthquake, Miko felt numb. Her breath came short and broken, tears falling down her face, and her heart broken in two.

Footsteps again came from the darkness, and finally a door opened, yielding light into the abyss and showing Silas' silhouette as he left her alone in the water tub, "I'll be sure to give the Autobots a hello for you, Miss Nakadai, if they care at all, that is…"

The door shut behind him, leaving Miko in complete darkness to begin sobbing again, as loud as her broken voice could carry.

She had not noticed when the open door had illuminated the room, the camera set in the corner; recording the whole thing on night vision.


	4. Fourth Day

A/N-A quick message to all of my 'lovely' followers who blatantly disregarded the painful, emotional trauma of the shootings and the psychological turmoil I have been going through for **weeks that has kept me awake at night, kept me from eating right, and has all but deafened my muse for art,** who simply left note after note after note about how it was sad but OMG I NEED TO UPDATE LEIK RIGHT NOW.

'Shame on you' is the proper, lady-like response. But it doesn't cover how I feel about those horrible notes, so I'll just go with a nice, standard:

_**FUCK YOU**_

So help me God, if one more person just acts like those kinds of things shouldn't affect your precious fan fiction's update schedule, I'm just going to delete this whole fucking thing.

Your call.

-o-o-o-

The sound of the door closing roused Jack from his exhausted rest, jerking him awake to see Silas and another MECH agent walk in casually. His chest tightened in sync with his throat, his breathing becoming shallower as he watched Silas polishing a wicked looking combat knife.

"Good Evening, Jack. How are you feeling?" Silas purred.

The MECH agent behind him brought a camcorder out and aimed it at the boy. Jack looked on as the light on the camera flashed from red to green, signaling that it was recording.

'_Why are they doing that? What's the point?'_ He frantically thought; his throat far too tight to respond to Silas as his mind raced from one thought to another.

Silas didn't seem to mind Jack's silence, "I just finished visiting your friend Miko. She has quite a mouth on her, if you can believe it." Silas chuckled sarcastically, his eyes drawn to the knife he was cleaning as he sauntered his way and that in front of Jack.

Dread passed through him and Jack began trembling at the realization that somewhere his friend was _hurt_. "What did you do to her?"

Silas looked up at him with an unemotional look, "I bet Miss Nakadai is loose with her words because of those Autobot friends of yours. I very much doubt that mechanical homunculus had much of a reign on her." He finished cleaning the knife, looked it over once, and slid it back into its sheath on his belt.

"What did you do to Miko?!" Jack cried, body too tense to stand.

Silas paused, and then took a few steps forward, kneeling before the shaking teenager, "I would be more concerned about what I have in store for you, _Jack_."

Jack froze; expecting instant pain, but Silas simply withdrew and stood up, walking over to the door to plant a few soft raps. The door opened and two more MECH agents entered, locking to door behind them. All four men now turned to face Jack, silent but foreboding.

-o-o-o-

June Darby sat in her living room, hands folded in her lap, watching the clock on the wall tick the seconds away with pained eyes. She hadn't slept since the children's abduction, and had hardly eaten anything. Her whole body still screamed with pain from her injuries, but it couldn't compare to the awful void inside her. She had cried all her tears, prayed to any deity that could hear her, and screamed until she went hoarse; none of it helped.

Her son, and two other children who June loved dearly, were in the hands of some deranged terrorist and they had no idea _where_. A sob escaped her throat unconsciously as she tried to reel in her emotions. The worst part of all of this was just not knowing a damn thing.

Calling Agent Fowler did her no good, he just reassured her that he was on top of things and the kids would be found soon. And the Autobots…well, she hadn't made too much contact since the first day. She had been a bit busy with the police asking a dozen questions and dealing with Raf's parents and Miko's host parents; having to lie through her teeth to both of them had aided in draining June to her current state.

She thought about making a call to the Autobots, having the base's frequency programmed into her phone, but quickly decided against it; she didn't want to hog the line in case Fowler contacted them, or they were busy looking and needed the line open.

Forcing herself off the couch, she made her way into her bedroom. She resolved to getting some rest, then visiting the Autobot base when she woke. She was no longer going to sit around and wait; one way or another, she would have answers.

-o-o-o-

Ratchet had been the only one this time. The Decepticons finally resurfaced with an energon mining operation deep in the wilderness of the human country 'Canada'; Optimus and the others had gone to stop them, as well as hopefully procure some energon for themselves, as they hadn't had the chance lately to harvest their own…Which left Ratchet to man the groundbridge and maintain communications.

And also left him as the only one to witness Miko's torture.

He had been hesitant to open the transmission, as he debated leaving it for when the others were there to witness it as well. But he decided it was a selfish thought, to make the others suffer by watching another sparkbreaking video of their charges being mutilated.

The video was merely a few moments long, just enough to do damage to the young girl's faith in her Autobot friends. Silas had done that on purpose. And somehow it was worse than when he made them bleed. There was no mention of Jack or an indication of Rafael's status.

Ratchet cursed every foul word he knew in Cybertronian and English, slamming his fists repeatedly on the console until all he saw were sparks and flashing lights.

This never would have happened if those _damned_ children had never been brought to the base in the first place! If Optimus had simply kicked them out when he had the chance, when he had told their leader to-

His hands retreated to hold his helm and Ratchet sank back onto the cold floor, knees drawn up to guard him as he curled into himself; the only sounds in the base being his systems whining in utter distress.

-o-o-o-

Jack spat blood onto the growing puddle on the floor. Silas was military grade stuff, which he had figured from the start, but for a kid his age, Jack liked to have thought he held up pretty well under the MECH leader's onslaught.

He was more than sure his rib had been broken from a particularly harsh kick to his chest, but besides that, some already-blackening bruises, and a pretty nasty busted lip, he was going to be just fine. But that wasn't what was on his mind at the moment.

They had recorded it. Why? What was the point? They hadn't demanded information, they hadn't told him to do anything that he would refuse; they merely used him as a punching bag and filmed it.

Well, what were videos meant for? To be seen. But who are they showing them to?

His thoughts were interrupted by one of Silas' men throwing open the door and shoving another being inside.

"Miko!" Jack cried, sitting forward as the girl was thrown in front of him. The MECH operative then retreated back through the door, leaving them be as the boy hurried to his friend's side.

Jack's hands instantly flew to Miko's shoulders, eyeing as much of her as he could to look for injuries as he rattled off a hundred questions, "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" Miko merely curled into herself, body shaking as she began to silently cry.

Helplessly, Jack cupped her face gently, brushing away her hair that had come loose from hair ties, voice dropping to a near whisper, "Where did he hurt you, Miko?"

She didn't look at him, just shaking her head as her sobs began to gain sound, until she was crying hysterically, falling forward to clutch at Jack. "They left us!"

He held her close, not caring about the pain from his chest at the pressure, "W-what?"

Miko gave another loud sob, "Bulkhead! Optimus! The Autobots; they _left_ us here!"

Shaking his head, Jack tried to cut her off, but she pulled back off his shoulder to look him in the face, her eyes swollen from crying, "They know what he's been doing to us, but they don't care! They left us here to die!"

"No." Jack's voice finally came through, cutting into Miko's tirade, "No, they're going to find us, Miko. They're gonna kick Silas' ass and we're-" He stopped himself this time, swallowing a growing lump in his throat, "We're going to be ok…"

Miko's sobs died, but her body still quivered, and her hands still clutched at Jack's shirt, "They aren't coming, Jack. And even if they do it's gonna be too late by the time they get here. We'll be dead."

"_No_."

"He's gonna kill us, Jack! He's gonna kill us just like he killed Raf!" Miko cried, hot tears falling down her face as she looked into Jack's eyes, "That guy who brought me here told me! He said Silas cut him all up and he died! _He's __**dead**__!_" She screamed as she began to weep again.

No. Oh God, **please**, no…

The world felt like it had been ripped from underneath him, spinning him in its wake. The air left his lungs as Miko returned her head to his shoulder to cry on it; Raf was dead? No. NO! This couldn't be happening…He was supposed to be the responsible one, the oldest one who looked out for his two friends. And he had failed. Raf was dead. A horrible, painful death alone with a psycho and more than likely a haphazard burial, if he was granted one at all…

Dead. Gone. Soon they would be too.

Why hadn't Optimus and the others come yet? Why didn't they save Raf?

"They left us…they left us…"


End file.
